Personally I think if you are going to mow over 1.5” you might as well use a rotary as reel mowers tend to shine at or around 1” and below.

 

I actually stumbled upon a $15 Fiskars Staysharp mower this weekend. Seller claimed it "needs sharpening" but all it needed was an adjustment.

Now I just need to find a catcher bag for it. They're sold out everywhere in the US, and only avialable via amazon from a UK warehouse for $80 shipped. $60 would sound better which was what they were going for not too long ago. Not sure why it's all sold out right now.

ANYWAYS, I've used the Fiskars for awhile yesterday, and I must say that this is truely an evolutionary manual reel mower. A few things I noticed vs my Craftsman (which should apply to Scott's or any other conventional reel):

1) The mower's horizontal blade dimensions extent past the width of the wheels. This is truly a must-have, because now you are cutting right up to edges to objects, rather than having to bust out the weedwacker and go over all edges.

2) The chain driven design makes it easier to use and gives it a feeling of quality. It doesn't take much pressure to get it to go, and the blades are decoupled from the wheels, so when you stop, the blades will still spin breifly. Basically, you don't have to get any "running starts" if you're trying to hit a heavy patch.

3) It's pretty cool that you can direct the clippings to go either infront of you or behind you. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to love the bag being in the front (just have to adjust how I mow for a couple sections), but the benefits heavily outweigh this con.

4) The blades are super beefy. I mean, thick, easily 1/8".

5) Extremely quiet operation that doesn't need oiling after every use like my craftsman. The blades and bedknive have consistant machining/gap to where there is no friction noise.

6) Mower is slightly heavier than other basic reel mowers. Still much lighter than a lawn mower. Some of the striping kits availalbe for this are pretty impresssive.

I'm excited to see how this thing cuts at 3.5 or even 4". I tried the 2.5" setting yesterday which was the highest I've been able to reel mow so far, and it was no different than cutting at 2". It pretty much got everything in a single run.

 

In MOST cases, I'd recommend a rotary mower for the conditions you describe. But if your main purpose in trying a reel is you want something manual and quiet for a small lawn, then I have no problem with going for a reel.

My grass is mostly TTTF, so in the summer I'll probably want to let it grow long, bare minimum 3", but probably even better at 3.5-4".
Just wondering if I had a reel mower with a higher cutting height, would that enable me to use it a little more?

The common advice/practice of raising cut height for cool season grasses is about minimizing necessary inputs ($$$ and labor) for healthy turf more than it is about the actual appearance of the lawn. As long as you are in a reasonable climate, TTTF can be maintained @ 2" or even lower, even over summer, but it will require more input. You want to get more use from the reel? Increase your mow frequency, keep the lower height's of 2-2.5", and make sure your irrigation (and watering budget) is up to par.

Anyways, purpose of the post is to determine what's a realistic cutting height for a reel mower? Grass tends to lay down when it gets past a certain point. So even if you got something that cuts up to 4" (i.e. Fiskars), is it realistically usable at 4"? Is there a magic "these work best up to "X" length statement that can be made for reel mowers?

There is no set range as a reel mower can be designed to cut at .100" or 10". Or higher. It's all about the cutting geometry of the machine. The 5" diameter reels we typically see on manual reels are going to run into issues at height's over 2". They just won't have enough "reach" below the cutting height to gather any low-lying grass blades. That's why reels used to maintain taller heights generally have larger diameter reels than something intended primarily for low heights. You want the reel to reach a bit lower than the cutting edge, while not having the cutting edge (bedknife) positioned excessively "behind center". That way the bedknife still performs it's function of pushing the turf and standing it up in front of the reel knives for clean cuts at consistent heights.

That said, the bedknife geometry has the greatest effect on the effective HoC range. Reel diameter does help, but unless the bedknife is able to push and stand up the turf, it won't matter what the reel dimensions are.

I'm excited to see how this thing cuts at 3.5 or even 4".

When you get up that tall, especially with a bunch-type turf like TTTF, the density of the turf falls off some. Lower heights support a denser turf canopy and while a warm-season "tall" variety like St. Augustine, the stiffer leaf will still easily stand up into the cutting action. With TTTF, you may find that it's too limp at those heights to be cut at a consistent length which is where the vacuum action from a rotary helps improve after-cut appearance. The denser canopy of lower heights gives enough support that the vacuum action isn't needed.

 

Good response! Hard to really play off that.

Definitely not going to get rid of my rotary mower, but even if I'm able to use a reel for half of the season, I'm probably winning!

I'll have to post back when try mowing at longer lengths to see how it fairs. I overseeded (and seeded 1,000 sq foot of bare spots) so right now my yard is in repair mode. I've already done a 2" reel mow on it since (not the new grass spots yet), but the grass was probably like 2-3" in length at that point (and cut like butter). Much of the new grass is approaching 2" right now. Probably will wait until it's about 2.5 or 3" before running the reel out again. By then the overseeded parts of the lawn will probably be about 4" or so.